Mexican officials presented a letter from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal Oct. 17 that he is asking the national legislature and state legislatures to increase what they are spending on labor reform in the coming year, including an additional $18.8 million for federal labor courts, $18 million for local conciliation center, $13.5 million for local labor courts and $10 million for training, public education and verification related to the new contracts. The federal government will provide a property worth $23 million to the new labor center, he said,

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a general license that authorizes certain transactions with Nynas AB, a joint venture between biofuel producer Neste and Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela's state-run oil company. General License No. 13D, which replaces No. 13C, authorizes transactions with Nynas AB and any of its subsidiaries until April 14, 2020. The license was scheduled to expire Oct. 25.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take a second European Union exit deal to the U.K. Parliament on Oct. 19, after coming to new terms with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on an agreement on Brexit. Under the deal, Northern Ireland will formally remain part of the U.K. customs territory, but will also be an entry point into the EU customs zone with no tariffs on goods entering from Ireland and a vote in four years on whether to keep the arrangement in place, according to a BBC report.

Although the International Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 incoterms did not make the significant revisions that industries expected, it did introduce several changes that may require updated contacts between importers and exporters.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

In the Oct. 11-16 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs recently published a list of customs agents and fast parcel operators that can help importers and exporters submit customs declarations in the event of a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31. Customs agents can also be searched for on the British International Freight Association website, HMRC said.

Nearly 100,000 companies in the United Kingdom have now been automatically registered to use that country’s Transitional Simplified Procedures if there’s a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31, U.K. HM Revenue & Customs said in a press release. TSP simplifies procedures importing, and make it especially easier for companies completing customs procedures for the first time, but up to now only about 30,000 had applied. Among the benefits of TSP are a six-month period to submit customs declarations and pay customs duties after importing goods from the European Union. “This will prevent congestion at the border when goods enter” the U.K., HMRC said.

The United Kingdom won’t issue any more export licenses on goods destined for Turkey that "might be used in military operations in Syria," U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Parliament on Oct. 15. The policy will remain in place while it conducts a review of the U.K.’s defense exports to Turkey, he said. Raab, who noted that the EU has declined to impose sanctions on Turkey, was answering questions on the U.K.’s policies toward Turkey in light of the country’s military action in northern Syria.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 16 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):